Product Listing Pages

Relevance

Why Product Listing Pages Matter

Product Filter Pages or Product Listing Pages (PLP) function like separate sections of supermarket shelves:
Shoppers know that dairy products are grouped together, and that's where they'll find the cottage cheese they're looking for. Laundry detergent is on a different shelf.

Assortment Guidance
PLPs provide a structured and clear presentation of a wide range of products in a web store and allow customers to refine their search based on various criteria. This allows shoppers to browse and discover products within a specific category or subcategory without having specific information about their desired product.

SEO Benefit: Increased Visibility
The importance of Product Listing Pages goes beyond the user experience. It's also important for search engine optimization.
A well-optimized PLP can help improve the visibility of your products in search engine results, thereby increasing traffic to your site.

What is a product listing page?

Multiple Terms for Related Pages

Product Listing Pages (PLPs) are an indispensable part of modern e-commerce platforms. But what exactly does this term stand for?
A PLP is a web page that basically displays a section of a web store's product range. How the product section is created is not significant

Related: Filter Pages
The term filter page is sometimes used when users create their own assortment using filters.

See also: Category Pages
Category pages are a widely used term in e-commerce that refers to a group of products put together by the shop provider, such as women's pants.
Another view of category pages is that they are broadly structured parent pages with PLPs as subcategories.
Very often there are also mixed types, where the predefined categories are narrowed down by filters (facets).

Conclusion:
Since there is no clear distinction between the terms and since the functions are basically similar, we will stick to the term Product Listing Page.

Important SEO Opportunity with PLPs

SEO Favorites

Category pages are the SEO's favorite because they provide space for content and SEO opportunities normally limited to the home page and product detail pages – without the need for complex advice pages.

Keyword-Optimization

PLPs offer the opportunity to use relevant keywords and phrases related to the products listed. By integrating these keywords into the page content, page title, meta description, and other relevant areas, PLPs can be better optimized for related search queries.

Distributing authority via internal linking

It is PLPs that enable effective internal linking within a website as they can be used to create a networked (hierarchical) structure.

Some pages are more successful in terms of SEO and therefore have more authority for search engines. If you link from pages with high authority to newer or less visible pages, you share some of this established credibility. In this way, you are signaling to search engines that these linked pages are also important, which can improve their rankings.

Improved Indexing

PLPs facilitate indexing for search bots by providing structure and hierarchies to the website (and thus also improve the ranking).

Increased Dwell Time

Well-designed PLPs increase the chances that the user will stay in the store and click through to subcategory pages or product detail pages. Length of stay is an important quality signal for Google rankings.

User Experience

Orientation Guides in the Range

The key (communication) goals of a PLP

A PLP is not a sales page, but serves as a guide through the product range and the webshop. Potential customers stand here like at a crossroads where they have to decide where to go next. A PLP is therefore always optimized for forwarding.

Orientation and Control:
Can I get what I need? Customers should be able to quickly understand what is in this store or category. Because a PLP presents many products at a glance, it frees up working memory: customers can compare products at a glance with low cognitive load.
Assistance for further navigation:
- More information for forwarding to other category/subcategory pages
- Help to specify the segment with filters/faucets
- Certainty for entering the PDP: Users go to the relevant product detail page to get more information to make a purchase decision.
(Sufficient information for a quick purchase)

Content Elements of a PLP

Small Content Elements Predominate

At first glance, content and copy don't seem to play a very big role on a PLP.
Longer copies are usually found as SEO texts on larger category pages below the screen fold.
The textual content of a PLP is made up of smaller units, but these can fulfill important functions for the entire webshop.

Content Elements of a PLP

SEO Texts

Copy on a PLP that has a sole function for SEO includes the SEO title tag and meta description.

The title tag is one of the most important on-page factors in SEO, as it can appear on the search engine results page. Based on this short sentence, users in some cases decide whether to come to the online store or not.
The description meta tag is generally used to provide a brief and relevant overview of the content of a particular page. Sometimes it also appears as a snippet in search results lists.
The URL: The most important keywords can be included here. It also serves as a navigation marker for the user.

Content Elements of a PLP

Names and Navigation Guides

The names of the category or product range selection should enable a clear assignment to the products listed there.

Here it is beneficial to focus on familiar product groups, such as wedding dresses or children's bicycles. At the same time, the category names are also very important SEO elements and should contain the main keywords.

The same applies to the naming of subcategories and existing filter options.

Content Elements of a PLP

The Category Description

The communication goal of this copy describing the category (or product range section) is not so focused on the direct sale of products, but rather on providing answers to the customer's orientation questions at this point. Possible guiding questions could be

What does this section include? What is not included?
What are the special features of this section?
If I am looking for something else, where can I find it quickly?

The copy doesn't need to be too long, both from a user and SEO perspective. Up to now, this description text has mainly been created for the orientation of search engines and usually displayed below the product images with the important keywords. However, it can also be placed directly next to the filters as an introduction.

Content Elements of a PLP

FAQs on Category Level

If the product or range requires more explanation, a collection of FAQs at category level can also be placed on the PLP. This is where similar questions about the category are answered as in the more overview-like description text, only explained in detail.

Content Elements of a PLP

Copy with the listed products

The listed products are usually best identified by the product image.

In order not to disrupt the overview, only the most necessary information is provided: As a rule, this is the product name, price and, if applicable, availability.

It can be useful to add short labels to make the selection easier, such as “Bestseller” or “Best rated”.

Comparison